The Spark
by raven-flighton
Summary: Sarah's life over the last 10 years has revolved around Toby but all she really wants is her goblin king. What will happen when her latest blind date turns sour?


Sarah looked in the mirror. Chestnut hair shimmering, skin immaculate, make up beautiful but in those green eyes, her own green eyes, no spark. She wondered where the glory was. The glory that had burnt from deep within her, glowing, shining, like a beacon of light in the darkness.

"Sarah!"

"Just a second Toby!" She looked back over her shoulder, her brother was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. The baby brother which she had fought for ten years ago was eleven years old today. So shouldn't she be happy, since the day her and Toby had been returned to their suburban house in that thunderstorm, Sarah had made it her mission to keep him safe. Now that little baby was heading towards being a teenager and where had trying to keep him safe got her? Without a spark. It was as though she had no life without Toby, as though he was the only thing that meant anything in her pitiful exsistance.

This time it was her father's voice that echoed up the stairs "Sarah!"

"Sorry," Sarah checked her reflection one more time and then spun round to rush out of the room "I'm coming!" She rushed down their ornate old fashioned staircase, it was all so quaint, so normal. There they stood at the bottom of the stairs, her father, her stepmother, Toby and their latest attempt at setting me up, Colin.

The scruffy brunette boy grinned at me "Nice to meet you Sarah."

"Nice to meet you too, it's Colin, isn't it?" Sarah forced a smile but if you knew her like Toby knew her, you would have seen that the smile never spread to her eyes. At that moment, she was wondering on what planet this boy was as cute as her stepmother had told her he was. Round faced, red skinned and... not Jareth.

He offered his hand and failed to notice that she hesitated for a moment before taking it "Yeah, it's Colin."

"Aren't you two hitting it off," her stepmother encouraged, winking at her. Sarah just smiled sweetly, she knew exactly how this date would go, she would go along with it, laugh at his jokes, maybe flirt a bit and then when he or her parents asked whether she wanted to see him again, she would politely turn him down. That was the way her life was.

So they sat at Toby's birthday dinner and Sarah did exactly what she was supposed to with Colin, even if she would much rather be joking with Toby. More of Toby's friends and family arrived but none of them provided a release from Colin's increasingly monotonous conversation. In fact the couple were more or less forgotten about.

For the first time all night, Colin asked a question that involved Sarah at all "So, you're twenty-five and you still live with your parents, that's got to be hard?"

"Not really," Sarah lied "I do get tired of the constant..." she stopped herself, she was about to say the constant blind dates but that was not tactful so she just stared out into the crowd "Parties."

Getting to his feet, Colin pulled her to her feet "Then let's go out of here."

Sarah barely had time to gasp "What?" before she was out in the alley at the side of the restaurant. "I never said..." This time she wasn't silenced by tact, she was silenced by Colin's lips on hers. She would have pushed him away but, for a podgy red faced idiot, Colin was very strong. Feeling his weight on hers, pressing her against the wall, Sarah began to try and force him off but he wasn't budging an inch. Sarah knew were this was going, Colin was even more of a creep then she had first expected. While wishing she had worn heels, she continued to try and fight the man off. Eventually he pulled away from her lips to breathe at which point she screamed, but not just a pure scream, she screamed a word, a name "Jareth!"

Like magic, hell it was magic, the blonde goblin king appeared behind Colin. With one gloved hand, he heaved Colin up by the back of his shirt and tossed him aside hissing "People like you disgust me and if this were the underground you would be in the bog of eternal stench faster than you could blink."

"You came," Sarah -powerful Sarah, the girl who had faced down the Labyrinth, Sarah who had actually told the goblin king that he had no power over her- looked vulnerable, scared, shocked and so many other emotions that Jareth had been so sure he would never see in her, still youthful, features.

He blinked at her as he kicked Colin back to the ground "You called."

When he said it sounded so obvious but of all the things that Sarah had done. Cried over him. Thought about him more times than she could remember. Held her pillow tightly just to pretend she was holding him. Wished on stars. Told Toby about him. Cried some more. Hoped. Dreamt of him. Did some more crying. Sarah had never considered just calling him.

Colin was currently trying to crawl away but no way was Jareth letting this creep get away that easy, he pulled the round faced idiot to his feet, looked him in the eye and told him "You are going to go back into that party and tell them what an absolute git you are." Then he pushed Colin back through the fire doors and turned back to me "What in god's name are you doing with... that?"

"I think you know the answer to that Jareth," Sarah replied, trying to instil the courage of the naive fifteen year old she used to be, the one who had no clue what love was or that somewhere deep inside her a flame burned that was more than passionate hate. It would take another month -of her thinking only of the eccentric king who had, in his own way, guided her through the labyrinth- for her to realise how totally and incurably in love with the man. "I don't believe for one second that you haven't been watching me since the moment I stepped out of that labyrinth."

"That's where you're wrong Sarah," she shuddered with pleasure as he said her name, moving closer to her "Don't you remember, I have no power over you. I had no knowledge of you until the moment right here when you called for me. So, this time, you'll need to tell me."

She stared at him and shook her head "But I saw you, I mean I..."

"There are other barn owls besides me," Jareth smirked "But I appreciate the over-estimation of my power, it's flattering." But his smirk faded and he stepped back with a confused glance "Sarah? You're blushing."

Self-consciously, her hands flew to her cheeks "Am I?" He just stared at her for a few seconds, he couldn't comprehend this, it was something he had long accepted was completely out of his range of abilities. The one thing he had thought he could never achieve, making Sarah blush.

"What would you have me do now?" Jareth asked, his mismatched gaze fixed on her.

Lowering her hands from her cheeks, she glanced behind him at the party "I guess I should go back, before I'm missed and I'm pretty sure Colin won't bother me again but..." he had all ready turned and was walking away. She chased him, grasping at his leather clad arm and shouting "Wait! I mean... wait for me at my house, in my room, not the hall cause my parents will freak out if they see you."

"As you wish," he nodded, and then spun round with a flourish and fluttered away in the shape of that all too familiar white owl.

Smiling to herself, Sarah wandered back into the restaurant, out of habit, she strolled over to Toby "Hi Toby."

"Hi Sarah," Toby turned from his friends to talk to her "What's up with Colin, he looks scared out of his mind."

With a self-satisfied smirk Sarah whispered "Maybe he's seen the goblin king."

"More likely he got you angry, that can be pretty scary," Toby laughed, then looked at the clock "Seven 'o'clock." The guests began to leave, Colin scampered off somewhere, though where Sarah didn't know or care.

Eventually, her father came over to them "You two ready to go?"

"Yep," they chimed.

As they walked through the front door, Sarah only had one thing on her mind, Jareth. She hadn't noticed it yet but Toby had, the spark in those green eyes. That little boy may have known very little of love, but he could see it as though it was written across her forehead. He knew Jareth was back and he knew that made her very happy. In Toby's mind that was as in love as anyone gets.

"I'm really tired," Sarah pun round to kiss Toby good night "Happy birthday." With that she practically ran up the stairs to her room.

There he was. Sprawled out on the bed reading her worn out copy of the Labyrinth, he glanced up at her and smiled "How many times have you read this book?"

"I'm an academic, a literary academic, I have to read books a lot, so I can write my essays," Sarah defended herself, standing quietly, watching him.

Jareth put down the book, getting to his feet and walking over to her "Of all the people you could have called, why me?"

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, staring into those perfect eyes. Her heart was racing but she still kept that eye contact.

Nervously, he took her hands, wait a second the goblin king was nervous? Closing his eyes, he tugged her a millimetre closer "You could have called for your father, your brother, you could have just screamed. Why did you call for me."

"Because I..." she breathed "You were the only one who was completely mine. No-one else in this world could stake a claim to you except me."

With that he leant down and kissed her, a kiss that was long and sweet. A kiss that culminated everything they had ever dreamed. It was time for Sarah to break away from Toby. It was time for her to go back, **Underground**.


End file.
